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Which version of Realms of Arkania: Star Trail should I play?

Darth Canoli

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I tried to play Star Trail two times already but i hate character creation, still, this time (yesterday) i wandered around and the game seems great, UI aside.

But let's face it, i'm a UI whore and Eriador post convinced me to go with the HD version.
 

Darth Canoli

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So, i launched Star Trail HD.

Character creation is much better even with its generic look except the stats generator works exactly the same ... Fucktards ...
Anyway, i spent 20 minutes or so checking infos on all the classes and then tried to roll a character 3 times.
Let's face it, that character generator is retarded so i stopped and picked the default party which, after checking, is absolutely overpowered compared to anything you can humanely roll (according one human being has enough patience and endurance to go through that shit getting more than 2x13 and shitty other stats)

So, with my brand new overpowered default party, i started to explore the city, that 3D engine is the worst thing that ever happened to cRPG since Diablo.
And when you think it can't be worse, they throw at you cinematics of Parkinson's NPC ...

But i've seen worse; i endured Disco Elysium character creation, played half an hour of Morrowind and DAI, even played Deadwater until i reached the sailing shenanigans; at this point, i'm confident nothing can stop me!

So i enter the tavern and it's actually fun, i got some information, used some skills and fed the party.

Now, it's time to face the world, walking toward new adventures, i find that interesting looking NPC which sole purpose is the combat tutorial and for some reason, i feel compelled to accept.
It was probably my mistake, because after completing it, i made the vow to never again play Star Trail HD.

15 seconds later, i was firing the original version, spent 5 minutes searching for the sound menu to turn that f****** music down and finally did the smart thing accepting defeat and closing the game...
 

Ysaye

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May 27, 2018
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I would play the original, but I qualify this by saying I played the original back in the day (as well as Shadows over Riva), and I was burnt with the early access version of the Blades of Destiny.

I actually installed both again on my machine about five months ago, and I tried both one after the other. The benefits of the new (updated and fixed HD version) over the old:

(1) I would probably concur with YES!'s point about the interface is fairly valid, the new interface is (slightly) better.
(2) And in character creation, if you can't remember what scores are needed for particular classes then the old creation can be a little frustrating (There is an option just to have the computer find numbers that fit, so if you are not a munchkin it is fine).
(3) Some of the portraits in the new version are done nicely, and they have an "updated" set of the old portraits that are nice.

But for everything else in the original version just feels better to me.
 

Ysaye

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The combat looks incredibly slow and boring in both versions.

It is slow yes, in both versions - about the same speed as Temple of Elemental Evil. I don't find it boring, although it can be frustrating if you don't know what you are doing and/or have not formed good strategies about how to deal with situations.

My take on it is that combat doesn't happen as often (unless you do some stuff which is going to cause you to get attacked) so it is balanced up by that.
 

Darth Canoli

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It is slow yes, in both versions - about the same speed as Temple of Elemental Evil.

The UI* is terrible, making it slower and the good looking 2D battle-scapes from the original turned into gigantic piles of shit ugly 3D no man's land.

*Some of it might have been fixed, the changelog got as many words as Numenera...

Edit: Infinitron i didn't necro this one, someone sneakily did and then deleted his message, that was low.
 
Last edited:

Ysaye

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It is slow yes, in both versions - about the same speed as Temple of Elemental Evil.

The UI* is terrible, making it slower and the good looking 2D battle-scapes from the original turned into gigantic piles of shit ugly 3D no man's land.

*Some of it might have been fixed, the changelog got as many words as Numenera...

Umm...I was not defending the remake Darth - it was one of the things I have touched. If you look back further I was saying play the original.
 

coldcrow

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Mar 6, 2009
Messages
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In the same sneaky way, the Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail remake received a rather sizable update. I didn't dig too deep, but it fixes tons of bugs and seems to be the work of some dedicated individual.
It's still hot jank, much uglier than the sublime original, but at least it's playable now, I guess.
 

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